25 September 1615 ✧ The death of Lady Arbella Stuart
“Arbella’s life seemed to have ended not with a bang, but with a whimper—and that is no finish for a story. It is true she left not obvious legacy: in the most direct sense, her few goods were immediately seized on the privy council’s authority. In the broader sense, her contribution is an elusive matter. And yet, almost four hundred years after her death, she does not live in posterity. Several chains of action and event—genealogical, historical, ideological—make it hard to end her tale in 1615. They are tenuous, amorphous; so much so that to overemphasize any one is to perform the conjurer’s trick of misdirection. To proclaim that this, this, is why she mattered, is to evoke a strong aroma of sawn-up lady. But together the fragments of the kaleidoscope make Arbella Stuart a curiously ubiquitous ghost; one whose presence cannot easily be dismissed, thought she may haunt only the fringes of history.” – Sarah Gristwood, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen
“Sir John Harrington later wrote of her [Arbella Stuart] ’virtuous disposition, her choice education, her rare skill in languages, her good judgement and sight in music, and a mind to all these free from pride, vanity and affectation, and the greatest sobriety in her fashion of apparel and behaviour as may be, of all of which I have been myself an eyewitness.’ Arbella’s cousin, the composer Michael Cavendish, dedicating a book of songs and madrigals to her, wrote of her ’rare perfections in so many knowledges’. Poets were later to dedicate volumes to Arbella. ’Great learned lady’ was how Amelia Layner would hail her in the dedication to Salve Deux Rex Judaeorum: ‘RarePhoenix,whose fairfeathersare your own, /Withwhich youfly andare so much admired.’ Though the extravagant nature of the compliments may be put down to contemporary court politeness, it is still noteworthy that the compliments tend the same way.” — Sarah Gristwood, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen
Claim to fame: a Scottish heroine who successfully defended Dunbar Castle during a five month siege by the English.
Known as ‘Black Agnes’, she was the wife of Patrick, Earl of Dunbar and March. Whilst her husband was fighting in the north, Agnes defended Dunbar Castle against an English siege by the Earl of Salisbury for five months in 1338. She had only a retinue of servants and a few guards to meet the attack, but she was outraged and refused to surrender.
Salisbury began by bombarding Dunbar using catapults. Lady Agnes responded by taunting the English and having her maids dress in their Sunday best to nonchalantly dust the battlements with handkerchiefs.
Salisbury began assaulting the castle with a battering ram, so Agnes had a huge boulder dropped over the walls to destroy it.
The English then captured Agnes’s brother, the Earl of Moray, parading him in front of the castle with a rope round his neck, threatening to hang him if she did not surrender. She told them to go ahead so she could inherit his Earldom. The English relented and Moray survived.
Though an able commander, Salisbury lifted his siege of Dunbar castle after five months without success.
Black Agnes became a folk hero and is remembered in a ballad attributing these words to Salisbury:
She kept a stir in tower and trench, that brawling, boisterous Scottish wench,
Came I early, came I late, I found Agnes at the gate.
Phoenix crown Chinese 19th century Gilt metal, kingfisher feathers, jade, tourmaline, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, bone, pearl, glass, resin, silk satin weave, and silk plain weave
“The Eurasian kingfisher is known for its radiant, iridescent feathers of electric blue. In China, the plumes, known as fei-ts’ui, are highly prized and were used as early as the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220) to decorate wall hangings and bedcovers. During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties, the feathers were also used in jewelry and headdresses, especially those worn by noblewomen on ceremonial occasions and brides on their wedding day. By the early twentieth century, small ornaments incorporating fei-ts’ui were popular among ladies of lesser rank. As a result, it was not long before demand outstripped supply for these exotic feathers and the bird became extinct in China.
This headdress, characterized by a curved front and flat crown, would have been worn by a lady of considerable wealth. It was made on a latticework armature of iron wire covered by a black silk satin. Attached to the fabric are numerous decorative motifs, including a central blossom with a jadeite center and pink tourmaline petals; butterflies; bats; flowers; and two phoenixes amid stylized waves and clouds. These are embellished by kingfisher feathers set in gilt metal mounts, pearls, and semi-precious stones. Many of the flowers and critters are en tremblant, that is, they are attached by coiled metal strips to the armature and would have quivered when the wearer moved about, thus creating a shimmering effect. A pearl strand fringe with decorative beads and colorful glass pendants frames the front of the headdress.”
If you want to hear some hilarious stuff, hang out with the nobles in Fable 3. So off the wall.
I don’t remember the words exactly, but a couple years ago I heard a noblewoman say something about bathing in the tears of orphans. And she didn’t say it in some obvious sinister way. It was so matter of fact.
![catherineofbraganza:“Sir John Harrington later wrote of her [Arbella Stuart] ’virtuous disposition,](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2d231b05e41059737a75c37e11e3ece1/0cbea090cd29aba6-08/s540x810/dbfcd7c200965ac346def001f2928e57a1e694bb.png "catherineofbraganza:“Sir John Harrington later wrote of her [Arbella Stuart] ’virtuous disposition,")
![catherineofbraganza:“Sir John Harrington later wrote of her [Arbella Stuart] ’virtuous disposition,](https://64.media.tumblr.com/05da12b4b7d751b7a73551fefe2ea05f/0cbea090cd29aba6-43/s540x810/db1d1f56e4f18abb0edf6f2a3e4c462c505306d6.png "catherineofbraganza:“Sir John Harrington later wrote of her [Arbella Stuart] ’virtuous disposition,")
